A Bunch of Hot Air

Last night felt like the First Day Of Summer.  Although I had to work all day, and although I tried on some touring ski boots on my lunch break, the evening played out perfectly, with the promise of lingering warmth and the community out en masse to soak up the lengthening day.

After a quick taco dinner at home, we strolled into town with the kidlings to get some ice cream from La Cocina's new outdoor cart - we had 4 different flavors amongst us, mine being the best, of course (coffee), and we sat in the comfy chairs in front of the Coffee Cowboy and watched the arrival of a private party at Honga's.  Everyone was dressed outrageously, including the staff, Lady Sasha at the door checking names, red carpet literally rolled out on the sidewalk, and circus perfomers (!) from Durango.  There was a fat lady in a bustier juggling balls, a bubble-blowing lady on stilts with 3-inch eyelashes wafting glitter out of her silver cape, a couple acrobatic tattooed ladies contorting themselves, and who knows what other shenanigans were occurring on the inside of the party?

As if that wasn't entertainment enough, Main Street was blocked off for the lighting of the hot air balloons for the Balloon Festival.  The fires in Arizona were pouring smoke into our valley all day, leaving that lingering smell and rusty-orangey haze glow as the sun descended and time seemed to slow down.

The good 'ole boys from New Mexico and Arizona pulled it together and, despite the threat of a barely discernible breeze, unfurled their balloons in the middle of the street, inflated them with gigantic fans, hitched them up to wicker baskets and blasted a bunch of hot air and flames into them, until the street had 7 colorful balloons lighting and darkening in the dusk.

Kids and dogs were running amuck, squealing and barking (and not ncessarily in that order), everyone out enjoying skin and coffees and community and warmth and glow and excitement and some vague sense of satisfaction in having made it through Winter and through Off-Season and through School and into plain old Summer.

It's kind of like pulling out your favorite sweater for the first time in a season and knowing that as long as you have that, all is well in the world.